


What Othello Saw

by peristeronic



Category: Othello - Shakespeare
Genre: Accusations of Infidelity, And Lots of It, F/M, False Accusations, Internalized racism, Jealousy, Not actually slutshaming exactly?, Poetry, but still, it's just something you do when you're a guy in Shakespeare, poem
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-18
Updated: 2017-01-18
Packaged: 2018-09-18 07:36:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 184
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9374708
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/peristeronic/pseuds/peristeronic
Summary: “Be sure of it; give me the ocular proof.”Othello, Act 3 Scene 3





	

I.

 

I’ll believe it [he said] when I see it,

and that was no lie. He saw it

through good Iago’s eyes, the moment

he began to suspect. And then he began to believe

in the man he trusted always

on the battlefield.

What keen eyes

Iago lent him, so keen they could spy

a guilty start that Cassio made,

a drop of sweat on Desdemona’s brow,

a clue where there was none.

 

II.

 

The evidence before his eyes was this:

Item,

a handkerchief, white,

with strawberries on it;

Item,

his lieutenant laughing

scornfully at his own joke

            just out of earshot

 

His visions in the dark were these:

            Cassio’s hands roving over Desdemona’s breasts,

grabbing and cupping her breasts,

his skin almost as pink as hers, not dark,

            not like a stain of dirt against the white snow

(almost as soft, as well, no calluses on his hands, no nicks and scars, not soldier’s hands at all)

her eyes fluttering closed,

her parted lips—lascivious—

forming a round _O_

as she sighed out

            like a woman in heaven

a name that wasn’t _Othello_


End file.
